Journey to the (Frozen) Past
by jdLevengood
Summary: A Frozen/Anastasia crossover that takes place in the twilight of Imperial Russia. Frozen's Anna is Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas, while Elsa is her older sister, the third of four sisters.
1. Chapter 1

**December 24, 1904**

Grand Duchess Elsa Nikolaevna dreamed she was on a Pegasus, flying over St. Petersburg. She couldn't remember where the creature had come from, how she had found it, or where she found it. All she knew was she was high up in the air, flying over the Winter Palace that served as her family's St. Petersburg home. After circling around it, she made another pass, flying much lower so she could try and spot her family.

As she flew past the Winter Palace again, she noticed that it appeared dead and uninhabited. She figured her family was much farther south, at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. It was the palace that served as their home for the majority of the year. If she wanted to find her family, she was going to have to fly there.

While Elsa knew the palace was south of St. Petersburg, she had no idea which direction was south. Besides that, merely finding which direction was south wasn't enough, as the palace wasn't directly south of the capital, but rather southeast. She was young and had no idea how to get there. The family had always taken a train before. The idea struck her that if she could find the train tracks her family normally took, she could find her way to the palace.

Elsa flew the Pegasus around the city, seeing several tracks, but had no idea if they were the particular ones she was looking for. She had to come up with another idea and wondered if the Pegasus would know how to get to the palace itself. "Take me to the Alexander Palace," she said into the creature's ear.

The Pegasus made an abrupt turn, seeming to know where it needed to go. She herself had no idea if they were flying in the right direction until they reached the outskirts of the city, and she recognized some familiar landmarks that she regularly saw on the trip to the Alexander Palace.

The Pegasus flew Elsa to the palace in a short time. When they reached the palace, she flew it low to see if her family was there. As the Pegasus flew past the palace's courtyard, she saw three specks run out the front door. She knew the three specks were her sisters. Taking another pass by the palace, and flying lower, she could see that sure enough, Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia were in the courtyard looking up at her. She imagined they were furious with jealousy.

Circling around again, Elsa had the Pegasus land in the palace's courtyard. The creature came down right in front of her sisters as Elsa soaked up the looks on their faces. Olga and Tatiana, her older sisters, had looks of jealousy. On the other hand, her younger sister, Anastasia, or Anna, as Elsa called her, had an expression of pure wonder and joy. It was an expression Elsa had seen several times before and always considered adorable.

When the Pegasus stopped, all three of her sisters ran forward so they could jump on. The Pegasus dropped a wing in front of the Big Pair, Olga and Tatiana, to block their path. Anastasia, being just three years old and much smaller than her sisters, was able to duck under the wing and run towards the Pegasus.

"Come on, Anna," Elsa said as she extended a hand to her sister. Anna took it and Elsa pulled her up on the creature. She sat behind Elsa, wrapping her arms around the waist of her older sister. The Pegasus took off again, almost hitting Olga and Tatiana as it flapped its wing. Both Elsa and Anna laughed at their older sisters as they hit the ground to avoid being hit.

The Little Pair kept their eyes on the Big Pair as the Pegasus flew away from the Alexander Palace. Elsa and Anna enjoyed seeing the looks of jealousy on the faces of their two older sisters. A couple months earlier, at their brother's christening, the roles had been completely reversed. Olga and Tatiana marched in the procession, while Elsa and Anna had to watch from the sidelines with the other small children. The entire week leading up to the christening, the two had taunted the Little Pair with the privilege they were going to get to experience. Then, during the ceremony, the two couldn't help but give their younger sisters mischievous smiles when they passed them while they were in the procession, and Elsa and Anna were on the sidelines.

As the Pegasus flew higher, Elsa and Anna turned their attention from the ground to the sky and just enjoyed the flight. Elsa stretched her arms wide as she felt the wind against her body. She screamed in elation like she had never done before. Behind her, Anna laughed and giggled with joy. It warmed Elsa that she was able to share a moment as special as this with her beloved sister. She closed her eyes, and just listened to the girl's giggling. As she did so, she noticed Anna's giggles get softer until they sounded muffled. She noticed the wind fading until she felt nothing at all. She no longer felt like she was sitting on a horse, but lying down, with her head against her pillow.

It quickly occurred to Elsa she had just woken from a dream. None of it was real, although, for some reason, she could still hear Anna giggling. When she opened her eyes to see why, she found herself staring right into Anna's green eyes. The girl was so close to her, she couldn't see much else.

"You're a little close there, Anna."

"Your breaths cold," was all Anna said in reply.

"What?"

"Your breaths cold." Anna sat up so she could point at the spot on the pillow that had been catching Elsa's cold breath. It was wet with condensation. The big smile she had on her face indicated she was greatly amused by what she was seeing.

"So, my breaths cold. I don't see what the big deal is." Elsa turned around so she was facing away from her sister. She didn't appreciate being woken by her, especially when she was in the middle of such a great dream. She buried her head in her pillow as she tried to fall back to sleep.

"No one else's breath is cold," Anastasia countered.

"Are you sure about that?" Elsa asked. "Have you put your face right in front of everyone else's." Elsa waited for her sister to reply, but she said nothing. "What are you even doing up, and why are you in my bed?"

Instead of answering her sister right away, Anna scooted over and straddled Elsa. Knowing she wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon, Elsa went ahead and opened her eyes. She did so just in time to see Anna put her face right up against her sister's once again.

"It's almost Christmas!" Anastasia yelled as she spread her arms out.

"I know, and it will come much quicker if you go to sleep."

"I don't want to go to sleep." Anna pouted as she moved back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Why not? Everyone else is sleeping."

"I want to see what our gifts are." Anna jumped down off the bed and pulled the covers off Elsa. The girl tried to reach out and pull them back up, but Anna grabbed Elsa's arm and started trying to pull her off the bed. "Come on, I want to see what we got."

"You know, if you open any of your gifts, mum and dad will kill you."

"I don't have to open them; I just want to see what they are."

Elsa finally relented and jumped out of bed, as she suddenly found herself excited by the prospect of getting to see her presents herself. She was greatly anticipating this Christmas, as she was hoping it would be joyous, in comparison to the previous year. The previous Christmas had been incredibly gloomy, as their mother had been away ill, and they were still mourning the death of their cousin, Elizabeth. She just knew this Christmas was going to be so much better, as their parents were overjoyed to celebrate their first Christmas with their baby brother, Alexei, the long-awaited heir to the Russian throne.

Elsa let Anna keep a hold of her hand as she led her to their bedroom door. Anastasia turned the knob and flung the door open.

"Wait!" Elsa said. She spoke as quietly as she could. She didn't want her sister to just dart outside. There was no telling who might be up and about. While it was late, their father could be up tending to business. Their country was at war with Japan six thousand miles away. For almost a year, generals and admirals had been coming to see their father at all hours of the day and night to deliver news and discuss strategy with him.

To the utter dismay of Elsa, Anna actually obeyed her sister for a change. She stood obediently still as Elsa walked up to the door and peaked her head outside. She looked up and down the hall, failing to see any signs of anyone. "I think the coast is clear," she said to her sister. "Let's be careful, though."

As she talked, Elsa heard the sound of a dog panting. She looked down to see Anna's dog, Shvybzig, at her feet. The dog was looking up at them, wanting to join in.

"Tell your dog to stay here," Elsa commanded Anna.

"Why do I have to do it?" Anna asked.

"Because the dog doesn't listen to me?" There were many ways the dog took after its owner, and its inability to follow instructions was probably the biggest.

"It rarely listens to me either," Anna countered.

"It still listens to you more than it listens to me."

"Okay," Anna sounded completely dejected. They had kept their voices low during their discussion, and Anna kept hers low while trying to give a command to the dog. "Shvybzig, go back to your bed." The dog sat instead of moving, eliciting a groan out of Anna. "Go back to bed. Now." This time Anna pointed in the direction she wanted the dog to go. It understood the gesture and ran back to its bed, which was at the foot of Anna's.

The two girls took just a few steps away from their door, scanning the hallway with each step. They both ended up staring hard at the door to the bedroom of their older sisters.

"Do you think they're awake?" Anna asked Elsa.

"No, let's go." Even if the two had been awake, Elsa didn't feel like including them. This was a moment she wanted to spend with Anna, and Anna alone. Elsa grabbed Anna by the hand and led her down the stairs. The stairs took them to the front door foyer, where the family had placed its largest Christmas tree.

The two girls both stopped when they saw all the presents that had been placed under it. They stared at them with their eyes wide as they got excited. The gifts were all rather small, but they didn't care, they were still presents, and they wanted to see how many were theirs. The two girls turned their heads to look at each other in anticipation before they ran to the tree and started rummaging through the pile.

"Which ones are mine?" Anna asked as she started inspecting them.

Five year old Elsa had just started learning how to read, and she figured she knew enough to recognize the names of her siblings. A cursory glance at the tags revealed all she needed to know.

"These aren't our gifts," Elsa told Anna.

When Anna looked at her sister, she appeared ready to cry. "Are you sure?" Anna asked.

"Yes, all these tags are written in Russian. Our mother writes our tags in English. These are the gifts our parents bought for the servants. Our presents are under another Christmas tree."

"Which Christmas tree?" Anna looked utterly dejected, as if there weren't any other trees in the palace. She should have known there were a total of eight trees, as they had helped their mother decorate each one.

"The presents are under one of the other seven Christmas trees." Elsa rolled her eyes as she replied to her sister. She tried to think hard about which tree would have their presents. "Let's check the ballroom." Excitedly, Elsa grabbed her sister's hand and led her to the ballroom. The room was dark, save for the moonlight coming through the windows, but the moment they walked inside, they could see the silhouette of the pile of presents under the tree. Instinctively, they knew those gifts were theirs. When they ran up to the pile, Elsa looked at the tags in the faint moonlight. She could make out enough of the writing to see it was English and recognized the names of their sisters.

"These are ours," Elsa told Anna. Anna squealed with glee as she handed one gift after another to her sister, asking Elsa if the present was hers. Time and again, Elsa had to tell her that each gift was not hers. Most of the gifts around them appeared to be for Alexei. Elsa tried not to feel too much jealousy, it was his first Christmas after all, but she was starting to wonder if she and Anna were getting much of anything at all.

"This is yours!" Elsa exclaimed when she finally recognized the name Anastasia on a tag. Her sister didn't waste any time in grabbing it back from her and inspecting it. Elsa expected her to just give it a cursory inspection before she went back to looking for more presents. Instead, she seemed content to do everything she could to figure out what the one gift was. Elsa contented herself with searching through the pile for her own presents. When she came across the first one, she did everything she could to inspect it, like her sister.

"Elsa! Anastasia! What are the two of you doing?" Both sisters instinctively dropped the presents they were holding. Thankfully, their gifts were not breakable. They stared at the light coming from the ballroom doorway. The light of the lantern was so bright they were unable to make out the person holding it. They knew who it was, as they recognized the voice of Alexei's nursemaid, Mariya Vasilchikova.

"We're sleepwalking." Anna's response elicited a giggle from Elsa that just grew stronger as she watched her sister try to sell the lie. Anna closed her eyes as she held her arms out. She also started tottering back and forth.

"If you were sleepwalking, you wouldn't be able to reply to my question." The nursemaid reached them, allowing Elsa to see the look of annoyance on her face.

"How do you know?" Anna asked.

"I just do, now follow me." Figuring there was no point in trying to defy her, the two girls obediently fell into step behind her. They followed her back up the stairs and into their room. The minute they walked inside, Shvybzig ran up to the woman and started biting her ankles.

" Shvybzig! Stop that!" The woman started dancing around as she tried to keep the dog away from her ankles. The two girls found the entire situation hilarious, but they knew laughing at the woman would only anger her. They did their best to hide their laughter. Anna even held both hands against her mouth to try and muffle it.

"Anna! Tell your dog to behave!"

"But he doesn't listen to me." Anna spoke through her laughter.

"He listens to you better than he listens to me!" The woman was shouting so loudly Elsa figured she had to have woken Olga and Tatiana in the adjacent bedroom.

" Shvybzig, get back to bed!" Anna spoke forcefully, and the dog responded, running back to its bed, curling up inside it, and giving the appearance of being asleep.

"That dog certainly does take after you, Anna."

"I don't bite people's ankles," Anna protested.

"You did when you were younger," Elsa said through a giggle.

"I did not." Anna pursed her lips as she glared at her sister with a look of pure anger on her face.

"I think that's enough for tonight." Mariya sounded exasperated. "Now, I want the two of you to get in your beds and go to sleep." She glared at Elsa as she spoke, knowing if Elsa went to bed, her younger sister would follow her lead. Feeling she should show some responsibility, Elsa did what the woman wanted. She crawled into bed and pulled the covers over herself, looking back at Anna. Contrary to what the nursemaid had hoped, Anna did not follow her sister's lead. She stayed put, staring at the window.

"You know Anna, if you go to bed and fall asleep, Christmas will come sooner." Mariya did her best to sound pleasant as she decided to take a different tact with the girl.

"Will it be a White Christmas?" she asked as she looked up at the woman.

"It's winter in St. Petersburg," Mariya exclaimed. "Everything is covered in snow."

"But I want the snow to be falling from the sky," Anna pleaded. Elsa watched carefully as Mariya stood up straight. She was doing her best to control herself as she appeared to want to strangle the child.

"You know what, Anna, if you hop into bed right now, I will see if I can get the laborers to head up to the roof and push the snow off tomorrow. That way, when you look out the window, you will see falling snow."

Excitedly, Anna squealed as she ran to her bed. Elsa kept watching Mariya as she let out an audible sigh. Elsa could guess she was thinking that by tomorrow, the girl would forget everything she had told her about falling snow.

"Stay in bed, Anna," Mariya said after tucking in the girl. Elsa thought that was a poor choice of words, given the girl's history of doing the exact opposite of what she was told. To her surprise, her sister obeyed and stayed where she was.

Mariya walked to the door. Right before walking out, she turned around to make sure the girls were staying in their beds. She closed the door behind her as she disappeared.

Alone now, Elsa tossed and turned as she thought about how Anna said she wanted to see falling snow. She knew she could give Anna what she wanted. She had recently discovered she had powers, supernatural powers that allowed her to produce snow. She had been scared to tell anyone, as she wasn't sure how they would react. Anna was the one person in her family above all others she thought would not fear her for what she could do.

Finally deciding it was time to tell Anna the truth about herself, she sat up in bed and called her sister's name. "Anna. Anna, are you awake?" Elsa's words were met with silence, but that didn't mean the girl was asleep. She knew Anna liked to pretend to sleep.

Getting out of bed, Elsa ran over to Anna's bed. She called her name again as she looked closely at her face in the moonlight. The girl was out cold, to Elsa's disappointment. Despite that, she could still give her sister what she wanted. She held her hand out as she took a deep breath. Doing her best to concentrate, a stream of snow came out of her hand. Elsa found it hard to control, but she managed to blow it around in a circle before it fell over Anna's face. Elsa giggled as her sister even breathed in a few of the flakes.

"Sweet dreams, Anna," she said as she leaned down and kissed her sister on the forehead before running back to her own bed. She was excited about what she had done, but still fell asleep quickly.


	2. December 25, 1904

**December 25, 1904**

When Elsa woke, she opened her eyes to find Anastasia's face right in front of hers once again. She was smiling and giggling just as she had been a few hours earlier. Elsa didn't care for it at all. She was exasperated as she couldn't understand why her sister couldn't just stay in her own bed.

"Are you still trying to see if my breath is cold?" Elsa asked Anna.

"Why would I care about that?" Anna replied.

Elsa growled over her sister's reply. Apparently in just a matter of hours, she forgot about her sister's unnaturally cold breath.

"If you're not interested in my breath, then why are you in my bed?"

"Because it's Christmas!" As Anna talked, she jumped up and reached her arms towards the ceiling, just like she did the previous night.

"Let's go downstairs and see our gifts!" As Anastasia yelled, she jumped off the bed and ran towards the door. Elsa was starting to wonder if her sister had remembered anything from the previous night.

"Stop, Anna!" Elsa yelled after her sister. "We're not supposed to go out on our own. We're supposed to wait here for someone to come with our outfits." Elsa watched her sister, wondering why she wasted her breath trying to get her to obey orders when she never listened to her. Anna ran right up to the door and grabbed the doorknob.

"Don't open that!" As Elsa, yelled, she jumped down from her bed and ran to the door. As always, Anastasia wasn't listening. She opened the door and stuck her head out to take a peak up and down the hallway. When she pulled her head back inside Elsa pushed the door closed.

"It's okay," Anna began. "I didn't see anyone out there."

"Someone may come by at any moment," Elsa reminded her.

"We can go outside until they come."

"No, we can't." Elsa was really getting tired of having to fight her sister on the issue. "If we do, we'll get in trouble, just like we did last night."

To Elsa's surprise, she offered no questions about what happened the previous night, despite Elsa's thinking she forgot everything. While Anna appeared dejected, it seemed she was finally willing to listen and obey some rules for a change. She hung her head in disappointment as she took a few steps towards her bed. She almost ran back to the door again when someone knocked on it, but Elsa blocked her path.

"What are you doing? There's someone at the door."

"That's just Olga and Tatiana teasing us," Elsa said.

"It might be someone coming to help us get ready," Anna pointed out.

"Anyone coming to help us get ready would just walk in. We're too young for them to have to worry about knocking and asking permission to come in."

Anna appeared to accept what Elsa was saying and started walking back to her bed. She only did that so Elsa would let her guard down. Once Elsa stopped paying attention to her, she ran back to the door so she could look outside. Elsa was furious, and was going to yell at her to stop, but she opened her mouth right when Anna opened the door. She stayed silent as she didn't want anyone to hear her yelling at her sister.

Anna poked her head out the door just in time to hear the door to the Big Pair's room slam shut. "Olga and Tatiana are pranking us," Anastasia said to Elsa.

"Just forget about them," Elsa instructed.

As always, Anastasia failed to take her sister's advice. She ran right out into the hallway, intending to knock on the bedroom door of her older sisters just as they had knocked on hers. She hadn't taken two steps away from her own door when one of their mother's ladies-in-waiting, Trina, came around the corner and saw her.

"Anastasia, what are you doing?" she yelled. "You know that on holidays you are not supposed to leave your room until I've dressed you."

As Anastasia tried to come up with an excuse why she was out of her room, she was able to hear her older sisters giggling behind their door. She furious with them and intended to pay them back sometime, but right now she had to get out of her current predicament. Only one thing came to mind.

"I, uh, came out here because I'm sleepwalking," she said. She closed her eyes, held her arms out straight in front of her, and walked around on ridged legs to sell the lie. When Elsa saw Anna doing the exact same thing she tried last night, she became exasperated as she sighed and banged her head against the door. Her attempts to sleepwalk had failed miserably, but here she was trying it again. Elsa wondered once again if she couldn't remember anything last night, or if she just didn't understand the fact that since something failed once, it was likely to fail again. There was something wrong with her sister, but she had no desire to figure out what it might be.

"Stop lying and pretending," Trina said to Anna. "Just get back in your room so I can dress you." When Anastasia opened her eyes, she saw the woman was carrying two identical dresses. They looked cute to her, and she wanted to see how hers looked on her. She ran inside and started peeling off her pajamas, throwing them off wherever they fell.

"Anastasia, treat your clothes better. Your mother would throw a fit if she saw you letting them get dirty like that."

"Why are you worried about them getting dirty? Can't you just wash them?"

Trina almost growled as she was so exasperated by the antics of the young girl. Elsa found the entire thing amusing, as she knew exactly how Trina felt, and it was humorous to have Anastasia tormenting someone else instead of her.

"In case you haven't noticed, your dog tends to chew up whatever it can stick in its mouth. I don't know how to tell you how many pairs of shoes have been lost because of him." Trina went ahead and picked up the pajamas Anna had thrown on the floor. She laid them out on the bed along with the dresses she was carrying. "Your mother gets upset enough with the cost of having to replace those, I don't think she would be any happier having to replace one pair of pajamas after another. Whenever you change out of your clothes, you should lay them out nicely so either I or the other governesses can put them away for you." She took a moment to sigh as she looked over at Anastasia, standing naked in the middle of the bedroom. "At least you're making it easy for me to give you your baths. Elsa, take your pajamas off and lay them out on your bed. Set a good example for your younger sister. I'll get your bath water running."

Elsa growled to herself as she stripped down for her bath. She was getting tired of people constantly talking to her in the way Trina did. Everyone seemed to think that part of Anna's bad behavior came from Elsa failing to set a good example for her. Nothing could be further from the truth. Elsa was the exemplar of a well-behaved child. It wasn't her fault her sister was such a terror.

The two sisters hurried through their cold bath together. They always found them unpleasant, solely because they hated shivering in the freezing water. They had always been told their mother had them take cold baths because of frugality, but Elsa believed it was due to the fact the cold water made them behave and hurry.

Once the two were done with their bath, Trina got them into their matching dresses and did up their hair with traditional Russian headresses. They were to look their best, as the royal photographers were going to be taking pictures of their Christmas to distribute to the citizens of Russia.

When the two were done dressing, Trina had them stand still next to each other so she could inspect them and make sure they looked perfect. She sighed when she noticed something looked wrong. "Your mother really should have done a better job of picking out the headresses. The color contrasts too much with Elsa's blond hair, and blends in too much with Anna's red hair." She sighed again as she shook her head. "It's too late to do anything about it now, let's just go."

The two sisters walked out of their room to find their older sisters were waiting on them. They had on their own set of matching dresses, as their mother had recently started dressing them as two different sets of pairs, the Big Pair and the Little Pair. Elsa was expecting a snarky remark from either Olga or Tatiana, but with two of their mother's ladies-in-waiting watching them, they stayed silent and offered their sisters pleasant smiles.

"If everyone is ready, you girls can go down and take a look at your presents," Trina said to them. Despite having seen some of their presents the previous night, Elsa and Anastasia were still excited about seeing what all of them were. The older pair was excited as well, but all four girls were acting subdued, as they didn't want to do anything that would get them a talking to from one of the governesses.

The four girls managed to walk down the stairs slowly, but once they were all the way down, Anastasia couldn't wait any longer. She took off running in the direction of the tree where she and Elsa had seen their presents the night before. The other three sisters let her take off. She ran right to the large ballroom and out of sight of her three sisters. When the older three reached the tree, they found Anastasia had already made a mess of the presents, throwing everything around as she looked for her own. Elsa rolled her eyes as she was making a mess trying to find her presents when she couldn't even read the tags to know which ones were which.

"Anastasia Nikolaevna! What are you doing?" Trina yelled.

"I'm just keeping everyone's presents organized," Anastasia pleaded. "I'm making a pile for everyone."

"We already had the presents arranged the way we want them."

"I could put them back," Anastasia pleaded. "I think I remember how they went." As Anastasia looked around, the expression of confusion on her face revealed she was not going to be able to put them back the way she found them.

Everyone's attention was diverted by the sound of the booming voice of a young man coming from the front door. "Hello. Is anyone up yet?" It was the unmistakable voice of Misha, the girls' uncle and their father's younger brother. They were happy to hear his voice and know he was there, but what really excited them was who might be with him. They knew he was supposed to bring their grandmother with him, and they rushed off excitedly to see if that was true.

"Grandmama!" the three older sisters yelled in unison as they ran past the governesses and in the direction of the front door. Anastasia was slow to get started but ran as fast as she could to try and catch up with the other three.

Tatiana reached the foyer first and stopped abruptly when she saw their uncle was alone. She did her best to hide her disappointment, as did Olga and Elsa, who stopped right behind her in a line. Anastasia, on the other hand, was not paying attention to anything and ran into Elsa's back at full speed. This pushed Elsa into Olga's back, but the older girl kept her balance. Only Elsa tumbled to the ground.

"Elsa! What are you doing?" Trina yelled when she reached the foyer. "After everything I told you about setting a good example for your sister after she tried to ruin her clothes, you go and roll around on the floor in one of your best dresses.

"I didn't do anything!" Elsa whined as she stood. She did her best to brush off her dress, as she thought that might help. "Anastasia ran right into me."

"Elsa is telling the truth," Mikhail said as he came to his niece's defense. "She was just standing behind Olga when Anna ran right into her. I saw everything."

"Okay then," Trina said, looking uncomfortable that she had been proven wrong. "I apologize for yelling at you when you clearly were not at fault."

"Where's Grandmama?" Tatiana finally asked the question that was on the mind of all the girls.

"She is coming with your Aunt Xenia and her family." Xenia was their father's younger sister. They were excited to know she was going to come along with their cousins. They had so few playmates, and always cherished their time with their cousins. "Until she arrives, you have me at your disposal."

The girls all smiled so they would look happy. They weren't exactly unhappy to spend time with their uncle but had been looking forward so much to the others arriving that they just couldn't get very excited about him.

When the front door opened again, all the girls craned their necks to look around Mikhail to see who had arrived. They were hoping it was their Aunt Xenia with their grandmother, but it was just their Aunt Ella, with her husband, Sergei.

"Elisabeth, it is so good to see you, my sister." All the girls jumped as they were taken aback by hearing their mother's voice. They looked back to see both their mother and father had joined them. They had been expecting them to come down with their brother, but he was nowhere to be found.

The two sisters, Ella and Alix, gave each other a warm embrace. The two Hessian princesses had not been very close growing up. The eight-year age difference gave them little in common when they were young. They were the kinds of siblings who might have very well lost contact with each other as adults had it not been for a twist of fate. After knowing each other for a lifetime, the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich proposed to Ella, and she accepted. When Alix attended the wedding, she was noticed by Sergei's nephew, Nicholas. He was instantly smitten by her and would later propose. Alix and Nicholas would marry shortly after he ascended to the throne of Russia.

Having no children of their own, Ella and Sergei showered their nieces with gifts on Christmas and their birthdays. This Christmas was no different. As they greeted the royal family, a line of servants walked in with the gifts for the children. The girls found it difficult to pay attention to their aunt and uncle as they were eying what they had brought them.

They were just about to follow the servants with the presents, when in through the door came the one thing that could divert their attention, their beloved grandmother. Anastasia was the first one to see her, and in a remarkable moment of self-restraint for her, she kept her mouth shut. She didn't want to alert her sisters to their grandmother's presence because she wanted the woman all to herself. She ran up to her and wrapped her small arms around her waist.

Anna's older sisters soon noticed her absence. They looked around to find her and saw their grandmother. They all squealed in delight as they ran up and tried to hug her. They all fought for position until she politely reminded them she could hug them all if they lined up, with the oldest going first. Olga gloated that she would get to hug their grandmother first while Elsa scowled over the fact she would now be last.

When all the girls were done hugging their grandmother, they greeted their Aunt Xenia and her family. Their Uncle Sandro just nodded to them, but their cousins, Irina, Andrei, Feodor, and Nitika, all greeted them with hugs. The two families always got along well together as they were so close in age. Olga and Irina were the exact same age, as were Andrei and Tatiana. Meanwhile, Feodor was just a year older than Elsa while Nitika was just a year older than Anastasia.

On any other day, the children would have run off to play, but it was Christmas, and the royal family had numerous traditions they needed to attend to. Nicholas and Alexandra tried to corral everyone in the direction of the ballroom where the tree with all the presents was located, but the Dowager Empress had other things on her mind.

"Now where is my new grandson?" she asked as she looked at her son with a pointed expression on her face.

"The nursemaid will be bringing him down in a moment." Alexandra answered for her husband, giving her mother-in-law an awkward, but pleasant smile as she did so. "Why don't we all go to the Nicholas ballroom, so the children can see their presents."

With Anna and Elsa leading the way, the children all ran to the ballroom that held their presents. When they reached the tree they were astonished to see the servants had gotten everything back in place. The girls had to tell their cousins that while they could look through the piles, they were not to move anything, as the servants had everything in order. Afraid to even move among the piles and inadvertently mess them up, the children just stood off to the side, and tried to eye which presents might be theirs.

The children were waiting for their parents to tell them what to do, but nothing came. They soon understood why they were silent. Mariya had finally come down with Alexei. They heard their grandmother announce how overjoyed she was to finally see her new grandson. They all turned to see their grandmother stroking his cheek while Mariya held him in her arms.

"Okay, now that the children are all here, we can get some pictures of me with all of them." She caught the eye of the royal photographer, and motioned for him to carry his camera over to the couch. All the children followed her without having to be told to do so. After their grandmother sat on the couch, they lined up on each side of her, Xenia's children to her left and Nicholas's children to her right. Alexandra nodded to Mariya, and she moved to hand the baby to the old woman.

"Come now, these are the official portraits we will be sending out. The children should all be together. Olga should sit next to me and she should be the one holding the baby."

Before any of the adults could speak up, Olga told her grandmother why that would not be allowed. "I am not supposed to hold the baby by myself, he's too delicate." While their grandmother looked intrigued by what she heard, their parents were downright terrified over Olga's revelation. It was something none of the girls understood. They didn't know what the big secret was.

"We have told the girls we don't want anyone holding the baby as they are still too young," their mother said to their grandmother.

"Nonsense, Olga is ten years old, and might not be all that far off from having children of her own. She should be learning how to take care of a baby. And I can distinctly remember her holding Anastasia when she was an infant. That was four years ago, and you didn't have any worries then."

Elsa found herself having to suppress a laugh over the whole situation. She couldn't help but whisper in her sister's ear. "No one cared if anything happened to you when you were a baby." Anna turned around and shot her sister a piercing glare. She was so mad she almost hit her. She only held back as it was Christmas, and she didn't want to get in trouble and risk being sent to her room before she got to open her presents.

What Anna didn't know, was that even if she had hit Elsa, it was likely no one would have noticed it as everyone's eyes were on Nicholas, Alexandra, and Mariya. The tsar and his wife were enormously nervous about handing the baby over to Olga, and nobody could understand why. They eyed each other as they seemed to see if the other could come up with an objection, but neither wanted to say anything. Apprehensively, they told their eldest daughter to sit still on the couch next to her grandmother.

Olga squealed in delight as she took her seat and held out her arms to await the baby. Mariya gently laid the child in her arms as their parents seemed to tremble in fear. The royal photographer got several pictures, and when he announced he was done Mariya swooped in and took the baby back.

Everyone forgot about what transpired with the pictures as soon as they started opening presents. While most of the gifts under the tree were for Alexei, there was little jealousy among the children for him. He was the heir to the throne, it was his first Christmas, and literally the entire world was showering him with gifts. The only hint of jealousy came when they opened his gift from George VI, the King of England and the cousin of Nicholas. It was a massive Teddy Bear that was even bigger than Olga. It was from the finest British department store, and both Elsa and Anna wished they had been given one as well.

For Anna, her jealousy quickly disappeared when she opened her gift from her grandmother. It was a music box, one that looked beautiful. Wanting to see if it played music as beautiful as it looked, she turned the crank and listened to the music. She was ecstatic to find the song it played was as beautiful as she had hoped. She just kept playing it over and over.

None of the other children were bothered by the unending repetition of the song, as they were engrossed with their own presents and not really paying attention to her. Elsa, who was right next to her sister, was a different story. Her grandmother had gotten her a very nice doll as a present, but it didn't do anything. This made her jealous of the special gift Anastasia got. She kept eying it, wishing she could hold it and play it herself. She crawled over behind Anna and looked over her sister's shoulder at it. When she got a good look at it her jealousy only increased.

"Can I take a look at it?" she asked her sister. Fearing her sister might try and grab it from her, Anna stopped turning the crank and held the box close to her.

"No, it's mine." Elsa started to turn away, but when Anna went back to playing the song, she reached out and tried to grab it from her hand.

"Don't!" Anna screamed as she once again pulled the music box close to her, turning away from her sister in the process. Elsa recoiled her hand quickly, as her anger and jealousy had caused her to lose control of her powers. A flow of snow had come out as she tried to reach for the music box. Thankfully, with Anna turning away from her and focused on protecting the box, she didn't see the snow. Elsa looked around at everyone else to see their attention was elsewhere. No one had seen the snow she produced, and with it melting quickly, her secret was still safe. She opened the rest of her presents while Anna continued turning the crank on the box and playing the song.


End file.
